Life around the best MiLB ballpark in the country, AutoZone Park. Home of the Memphis Redbirds!

A Hot Dog Race to Remember

Hey everyone! Dave here. Well, if you attended Thursday night’s game, you witnessed one of the more epic hot dog races this wonderful ballpark has ever seen.

We had Kevin (mustard), Sam (ketchup) and I (hot dog) race from the first base warning track to the third base warning track. However, this was far from your more traditional hot dog race. Here’s the pic-by-pic recap and how it all went down (all photos courtesy of Allison Rhoades):

Getting all limbered up before the big race

AND WE’RE OFF! I waste no time taking mustard down…he had no idea what was coming.

We wrestle around a little bit, and now it’s on with no looking back.

At this point, I can’t forget to actually win the race. Ketchup has taken a commanding lead and I have to try and catch up (see what I did there — ketchup, catch up…oh well, moving on).

Mustard then did an excellent job of not letting me off so easily and taking me down so he can get up. I can’t speak for mustard, but at this point my head is spinning and I’m feeling a bit disoriented.

Mustard got one last quick shove while I’m trying to regain my bearings. At this point I’m thinking ketchup has cruised to an easy victory.

While mustard sees ketchup in his sights I’m fighting the dizziness and trying to get to my feet.

I stumble around like a lunatic as the hot dog hoodie falls over my eyes and I can’t see anything. I guess I had it coming, but I had to shake it off and get back in the race. As they say, if you can’t take the heat stay out of the kitchen.

And look at mustard think he can get to ketchup and beat him. He’s smiling as I’m far behind in third place. Oh he has no idea what was coming up next…

BAM! Ketchup was hanging out behind home plate to slow mustard down. I come sprinting in from behind and take him down once more. Mustard was the heavy favorite to win, so we had to make sure he never had too much momentum going.

As ketchup once again takes the lead, mustard is still in shock after I speared him. Notice anything unusual here? Well, it appears there is a pickle waiting in the Redbirds dugout. What more could we possibly have in store?

As mustard runs by the dugout HERE COMES THE PICKLE! Out of nowhere mustard gets blind-sided once again, except this time it was the pickle’s turn.

It was a clean take-down as I just barely scampered out of the way. The pickle was played by Shane (NOTE: It isn’t easy moving around in that pickle costume, so major props to Shane for not only willingly participating, but to perfectly executing the tackle. If Memphis ever has a pro football team here, Shane would love to be their middle linebacker, but only if he gets to wear the pickle costume).

Despite the lack of photographic evidence, I somersaulted across the finish the line as the pickle was apparently not satisfied with just taking mustard down. He scampered across the finish line just in front of one of the diving condiments.

We quickly scurried off the field (after all, there is still a baseball game to be played) as I apparently leave ketchup hanging.

Thank you Kevin for being a good sport about this whole thing. He had no idea what was planned, but after all…what goes around comes around. So make sure you keep an eye out for the next time the not-so-conventional hot dog race trio makes their next appearance.

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